Food and Wine Magazine discovers the Asheville food scene and loves it

Food and Wine Magazine came to town and visited Cúrate, Wicked Weed (yes, already), Greenman, French Broad Chocolates, Table, Cucina24, MG Road and more! Below is a quick excerpt from the article. For the full story, click here.

In the end, what’s quintessentially local in Asheville is a kind of shared resourcefulness: Most chefs use the same accountant, and their mushrooms come from the same foragers. They’ve had an impact on each other, too. For instance, Button wanted to make an esqueixada, a traditional Catalonian dish of salt cod crudo on a tomato puree with sweet onion and black olive. But she’d heard about some good trout from an up-country fishery, so she used that instead. Cúrate’s exquisite esqueixada de montaña (“of the mountains”) has the smoky lightness of the highland rivers set off against Mediterranean flavors.

The Iranis were so impressed with the taste of this dish that they put the same smoked trout on the bar menu at MG Road (with mango on puri crackers). Button was delighted, and felt as though she’d repaid a debt to Meherwan: He’d previously suggested that she give up her spice mixes and instead toast whole spices, and he’d even given her a lesson in his kitchen. These chefs may be new to town, but they’ve built a community. They’re locals now.